espiritu santo

delafe y las flores azules ~ espiritu santo (video)

once there was a group called facto (marc barrachina) delafé (oscar d'aniello) y las flores azules (helena miquel). a trio from barcelona making music mixing hip hop, beats and indie pop.
facto left the group and a few days ago delafe and las flores azules released their first album as a couple/duo called 'delafe y las flores azules vs. las trompetas de la muerte.
the first single is called 'espiritu santo' and if you're experiencing the first warm breath of summer, this song is the perfect soundtrack.



myspace

you've got permission but you've got to make the bastard think he's right

so the interview with scaresthedaylights is back. but without the tracks that i had permission to post here. as you could see in the last post, i received a message from google saying that the files available to download on the post were infringing dmca copyright laws (even though the band has no relations with dmca).
the post title was taken from a conversation i had with neil (the guy behind scaresthedaylights) and marc (from the city and horses and that also plays on neil's album). marc gave the quote from 'expectations' by belle and sebastian and i thought it was the perfect description for the situation.
so dmca, here's the interview, without the songs. hope you're happy.

so we infringed the law...

three hours ago, i received an email from google saying that, according to dmca (digital millennium copyright act), i infringed their copyright laws. the funny thing is that the file they pointed as being the one infringing the law (posted on the interview with 'scaresthedaylights'), belongs to an independent label and i had permission to put it here to download.
ok, i'm guilty because the original idea of the blog was to post whole albums to download and for 10 months of the 15 that the blog exists i've done that, i don't deny it. but if i should receive a warning for infringing the law should be for this older posts (that most likely have download links already expired).
for some time now i'm only uploading full albums of net labels giving music for free and independent artists that contact me to be featured on the blog. this blog, as i said before, more than sharing the 'latest' albums has the purpose of giving space to smaller bands/labels/projects that i think the world should know.

so at this moment i'm very confused... am i a criminal? all the music in the world belongs to dmca and i'm the only living being that doesn't know that? will my blog be deleted? what will happen next?

tillmanns

tillmanns interview

i've been talking to a lot of bands that i admire... really in an interview mood, interested in getting to know the processes, the inspirations and most importantly, the people making delightful tunes to cheer our lives.
today we talked with anders, member of the swedish band tillmanns. this is not their first appearance here on chaotisch und charmant. for a few years they've been a favorite in my musical life, so it feels awesome to share their thoughts with you .
also, anders was extremely kind for sharing a new song called 'nothing to do' where we can hear awesome beats and killer guitar riffs. as he mentions on the interview, the foggy atmosphere gives space to warm sunlights.

01. could you tell us how the band started and where the name came from?
anders: me and björn met through a friend whom i played drums with. each time we met at parties we talked about making music. we had the same preferences in music like stone roses and new order.
at first the name was a joke. it’s too complicated.

02.do you get to live of music or have a real job?
a: music is our real job but we have also got fake jobs that brings food to our table.

03. i'm very interested in creative process, so i'd like to know how do you create your songs... how's the process of turning melodic ideas into tunes?
a: my ideas comes late at night and i make a lo-fi recording at home. and then we meet up in the studio and put it all together.


04. your music has this 'analogic-uplifting-decay' mood. i mean, songs like 'twist' and 'hypnosis' make me think about bright days, but there's something dark that seems to be ready to come out any moment. on the other hand there's 'cold hands' that takes me straight to a walk at 6pm in a grey and rainy city somewhere in russia. that because that's how i 'picture' or 'visualize' your music... what can we find in your universe?
a: yes that’s interesting. we’ve been through a period of fog and mist, but soon the sun will shine again, and that influences our new songs.

picture taken from their myspace
05. your references (not only musical)...
a: lot of creation and factory bands. some german kraut and italo disco. movies and books.

06. 'a careless lifestyle' was released in 2007, almost three years now... what have you been doing during this time?
a: making new songs in a very slow tempo. i’ve been working with my solo project ”the harmony”.

07. is there something you could say about the release of new songs or albums?
a: new songs are on it’s way.

08. any song you'd like to cover?
a: maybe a song from e.s.g., i love them. i don’t know…

09. recommend something you've been listening lately...
a: windsurf, durutti column, the pastels and subway.

download: nothing to do

site
myspace
buy it

don't change for anybody, i won't change for you

the cripple and the tramp ~ don't change for anybody, i won't change for you ep (discos perdidos, 2010)

this is the solo project of david miranda, singer and guitarist from spanish band nouvelle cuisine. acoustic and melodic songs perfect for autumn days recorded straight from his house somewhere in the countryside of wales.
the album was released under discos perdidos, a new netlabel - we love them - giving away free music to the kids...

01. top flat
02. see you again
03. the ventriloquist
04. plans
05. insomnia
06. in the morning light

myspace

scaresthedaylights

scaresthedaylights interview

scaresthedaylights is this lovely project from neil lipuma, a musician/songwriter from brooklyn, nyc. some time ago marc cantone (the city and horses) told me about neil's project and sent me his album... beautiful, beautiful unpretentious music!
the story of how most of the songs were created is pretty awesome but i'll leave it to neil explain it during the interview. enjoy it!

01. first things first... tell us about the origins of the project and the name scaresthedaylights. i read on your myspace that comes from your fear of sharing your music with the world. Is that right? what's that feeling like?
the band name is derived from how fearful I was of outing my work to anyone other than myself. it scared the daylights out of me, so to speak.
the origin of the project began after i parted ways with a long-term girlfriend and pretty much suffered an early midlife crisis that led to me quitting my day job and taking a job as an assistant engineer at sear sound in nyc. I got the opportunity to observe a lot of great artists like richie havens, the killers, lykke li and bjorn yttling and sean lennon and yuka honda. this experience just inspired me to begin writing my own songs but i was very much closeted about it. i just wasn’t confidant that the songs were any good. i think I believed that they weren’t technical enough. then I played the songs for stephen of the exeter popes, katie and greg of twice as bright and marc from the city and horses. to my surprise, they really enjoyed them and gave me the confidence to keep writing. katie and marc would eventually join me on what would become 'burn then bed'.

02. a recurrent question that people love: do you get to live off music or have a 'real' job?
oh, i very much have a real job. i left sear sound and am back again doing my day job in insurance. it is where I belong. as you know, it is very difficult to make a living as a musician. i prefer the comfort in having a day job.

03. what about your creative process? do you believe in inspiration?
i absolutely believe in inspiration. i have always kept some kind of journal throughout my life. i record conversations I overhear and small details about people I meet. i jot down a quick description or a phrase and later develop it into an idea. sometimes it can be one word. i used to write poems, then short stories and now, writing a song is just another way to tell a story or express an idea or feeling.

04. 'burn the bed', your debut album, was released under white shoe records. how's your relationship with them? you knew them before or they approached you?
well, my relationship with white shoe records is an interesting one. i started the label myself in january 2006. i first released two eps from the exeter popes a band that my brother stephen formed. then we worked with a japanese psychedelic-pop band called water fai that my brother and I met while vacationing in osaka. next came, twice as bright, which was the latest project from a very prolific musician, engineer and producer named greg hoy. then came the city and horses’ record. marc and my brother stephen are the two biggest supporters of my music (not including my mom!). we don’t view white shoe as a record label but more of an independent music community. we play with each other, we support one another's musical endeavors and we just plain have fun together.

05. marc, from the city and horses - who also lends his multi-instrumentalist skills on your album too - said that took you 3 or 4 days to record 'burning bed'... talk a bit about the making of the album: song choices and stuff.
yes, we recorded the record over 2 days in brooklyn at the bunker studio with aaron nevezie who is simply incredible. we then took half a day to mix the record. aaron said it was the shortest amount of time he has ever taken to record a record. the song choices came from a little project marc and i started called one minute music whereby we would challenge each other to write songs in a short amount of time. in the tradition of the danish film movement dogma 95 we adhere to very strict guidelines. basically, we allowed ourselves 20 minutes to write, perform and record a one minute song. the song could be recorded on any device but could not exceed four total tracks and it had to be written and recorded alone. with the exception of “shirley maclaine” and “divorces,” burn the bed is essentially extended versions of what were one minute music songs I had written. I highly recommend this writing exercise to your readers. it is amazing what comes out of you when you don't give yourself enough time to over-think something.

06. personally, your lyrics are pretty awesome... i mean, your universe seems to be pretty unique (well, one might say that each person has an unique universe, but some are more interesting than others). i'm curious to know about your references and influences not only in music.
wow, you are too kind. thank you. I have always been taken by thought provoking artistry. as I kid it was the lyrics of rem., the smiths and live. in college, it was the poetry of sylvia plath, elizabeth bishop and charles simic. I adore the films of the late, greats like john hughes and billy wilder. I love the fiction of haruki murakami and david schickler. I love the paintings of piet mondrian and michael x rose. I love the films of vincent moon and marc cantone. each of these artists inspire me to write music. i think the key to songwriting deals with trusting your own voice and “universe”. It took me a long time to do so, but once I did the songs just came. I am lucky to be surrounded by so many incredibly talented friends.

07. any song you'd like to cover?
lately, I dream of covering “only you” by yaz. don’t laugh.

08. if you could give a place and hour to hear your songs, what would they be?
that is an interesting question. I think while getting dressed in the morning or while driving, either before work or right after. let’s face it, my record isn’t the one you put on when you are getting ready to go out on a saturday night.

09. finally, recommend something you've been listening lately...
the new shout out louds record “walls” and “weathervanes” by freelance whales finally replaced my incessant regina spektor listening. although, the new full-length by the exeter popes “deep sea treachery” is sure to overtake the number one spot when it comes out on march 16th.

10. anything else you feel like saying.
thank you for your interest and support! we love what you do. the city and horses are hard at work on their next album and I’ll probably get in the studio again this summer.


don't forget to check scaresthedaylights':
myspace
white shoe records
and his 1 minute music project with marc cantone
oh, and don't forget to get 'burn the bed'!

a fine young age

mixtape #08

so it's time for our monthly mixtape! and it is being posted today because it's my birthday. yeah, 26 years old... i decided to celebrate the date just like last year: compiling songs and building a mixtape with 26 musics, one for each year i've lived. not that they have some relation with a specific year.
actually the mixtape has this first songs with a positive and romantic view on life - just like when you're a kid and think that life will last forever; then we go through some songs that i feel represent me in some way (well, i think everyone has at least 1,000 songs in that category...) and the end has this tunes with a look on life that is a bit less naive and accepting that everything ends (baby, that's a fact!). so the idea was to build this 'years/life passing' mood, from birth until death.

01. lollipop train - strawberry?
02. nils folke valdemar sings: - welcome to the world
03. the april skies - a lifetime in the sun
04. scaresthedaylights - lionchair
05. plastic bertrand - major tom
06. punky's dilemma - shooting stars
07. princess niko - the comic renaissance of luv
08. south ambulance - hanging in a tie
09. the love letter band - let's go drinking
10. my darling you! - a teenager told me: be careful
11. vitesse - a fine young age
12. moto boy - when my heart was high
13. chapi chapo & les petites musiques de pluie - bourgeon tardif
14. oliver north boy choir - generation gap
15. my teenage stride - happy mondays
16. the smiths - you just haven't earned it yet, baby
17. the ocean blue - between something and nothing
18. mono taxi - must be the weather (live)
19. tillmanns - twist (spaced out)
20. par avion - modem love
21. zola - mi cumpleaños
22. death valley sleepers - she's in control
23. mirafiori - cosas que es mejor no hacer
24. vitesse - a way to my redemption
25. the deddingtons - last day
26. soda fountain rag - everything ends (baby, that's a fact)

boundary jim

boundary jim

i'm really happy, because lately i've been receiving a lot of emails from people saying kind words about the blog and even more happy for all the new bands contacting me and sending their material to be featured here. keep them coming, readers and musicians!

to celebrate your collaboration via email, here's a band that i got to know via gmail...
(actually the day i received this message was pretty special because 3 or 4 bands contacted me on that day!)
so this guy - that i thought were two - sent me this very brief message with the link to his band's myspace. while i looked to it, i was asking for more info, if he could share some songs with me (us!)... because the greatest thing about having a blog is to use it to promote new bands, that's what i really like the most, pass along the good music.
as you can see, the blog does have a lot of albums from well known acts that were shared. but at some point i realize that i wanted to share 'new' things and not 'hot' things. maybe i got what i called the 'john peel syndrome' because the idea of receiving new music from new artists is fucking amazing to me and it makes me feel very honored and emotional. it's not like i'll start to ignore some labels or more established artists that i love; they just won't be on the spotlight, but they'll sure have their space.
that's why i took some time off, you know. at first it was an unconscious action: i suddenly stopped posting; just after some time i realized that a change was about to happen. i'm not the same person that started the blog 15 months ago (you're not either) and my ideas started to go more and more distant from the initial purpose of creating it. the blog is a process... and that's the beauty of it: it could be a blog about personal thoughts but it's a music blog because that's the way i feel myself to be more personal, sharing the music i listen. it's a blog of a boy with more dreams than actions that share music that in some level(s) touch him. and by the way, yes. i do feel that this blog is my diary.

well, the original idea wasn't to share all this thoughts on this post, but i'm glad i did it. let's go to boundary jim now...
(actually, is boundary JIM but since here we don't use capitals... but just so you know.)


here's the band in the words of paul ducke (songwriter): "i moved to berlin last summer to set up a band to be able to play live. we opened up a few nice shows for more known bands. then in october i moved back to my parents. to write and develop new songs. the first ep of boundary JIM will be released on cass/flick from belfast (label of the drummer of 'girls names' who are signed to captured tracks)".
this band songs are a mix between a lazy shoegaze with a delicious melodic sense that resemble part of the c86 movement. and more than anything: their sound is lo fi.
he sent me two tracks to share with you:
'mile', with an hypnotic guitar hook and sounding almost like an introduction to their music, as if you were swimming deeper and deeper (or the opposite way, depends on the perspective).
and 'rainy days'. a melancholic ode to dark days with the sometimes awful feeling of being trapped or the comfort feeling of being inside.

myspace (here you can hear 7 more songs)

this ain't over

hi everyone!
almost a month since our last post, i'm stopping by just to say that haven't found much time (and inspiration, to be honest) to keep the posts coming. i'm starting a new routine and still haven't figured out the best time on the schedule to share my love for music here.
but don't worry, real real soon our posts will start to run again!
lots of hugs!

just to share something: have you seen the new ok go video called 'this too shall pass'? personally, kick the ass of the one with the treadmills...